What is Camera Aperture? A Reliable Beginner’s Guide to Aperture

One ques­tion that I am always asked when talk­ing about pho­tog­ra­phy is what is cam­era aper­ture? And, what aper­ture do I use? And when? It’s not as dif­fi­cult as it may seem, and the aper­ture is actu­al­ly more about your lens than your camera.

Aper­ture is one ele­ment of the expo­sure tri­an­gle and con­trols the depth of field. If you think about your cam­era in terms of an eye, the aper­ture is like the pupil. Aper­ture is the hole in which light enters the cam­era. The lens on your cam­era will deter­mine the aper­ture range that you can shoot.

When look­ing in your cam­era, you see an “f” and then a num­ber. This “f” and num­ber is telling you your aper­ture. The low­er the num­ber, the big­ger the hole, the more light that comes in, result­ing in only a small por­tion of your pho­to being in focus. This helps you achieve those pic­tures with the blur­ry back­ground. The high­er the num­ber, the small­er the hole, the less light that comes in, result­ing in more being in focus.

Shooting Wide Open — Larger Camera Aperture

Shoot­ing a larg­er aperture—F1.8–2.5 means more light will come into the cam­era, and there will be less focus in your pho­to. Shoot­ing “wide open” — when I say “wide open,” I mean to shoot at a 1.4–2.8‑can be incred­i­bly for­giv­ing as you don’t see a lot of what’s hap­pen­ing in the background.

It’s the per­fect way to shoot when you are all home togeth­er, and you want the focus to be iso­lat­ed on one thing and not say, on the mess in your kitchen, the laun­dry on your couch, or the tele­vi­sion that’s on in the background…oh sor­ry, maybe that’s just my house! But, it can also be chal­leng­ing to achieve a tack-sharp focus. Shoot­ing at this aper­ture is great when you have one sub­ject that you’d like to be in focus! Por­traits and baby pho­tos are often shot wide open.

When shoot­ing wide open, remem­ber to keep some dis­tance between your sub­ject and the background.

Smaller Camera Aperture

Shoot­ing a low­er cam­era aper­ture-F16-22 means less light will come in and more focus. This is often con­fus­ing to pho­tog­ra­phers just start­ing out in man­u­al. Keep in mind that the small­er the num­ber, the big­ger the hole. 

So, when do I use what you may ask? I tend to set my aper­ture based on what I am shoot­ing. If I am shoot­ing one sub­ject and want that beau­ti­ful, but­tery, blur behind the sub­ject, I will shoot wide open, mean­ing an f1.8‑f2.5. I focus on the sub­ject that I want to be clear and in focus, I make sure there is a bit of dis­tance between my sub­ject and the back­ground, and the lens cre­ates that soft but­tery background. 

I shoot at a more nar­row aper­ture when I am shoot­ing land­scapes and want every­thing to be crisp and clear. If I am on vaca­tion and I want every detail of a build­ing or mon­u­ment in focus. A nar­row aper­ture is per­fect for pho­tograph­ing a larg­er group of people.

Aper­ture is not as dif­fi­cult as it seems and tru­ly makes all of the dif­fer­ence in your pho­tog­ra­phy! If you can con­trol the aper­ture, you can turn an aver­age pho­to into an extra­or­di­nary, pro­fes­sion­al-look­ing image!

If you want to know more about cam­era aper­ture and the rest of the expo­sure tri­an­gle, join Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials. You will be amazed at how quick­ly you begin to see a dif­fer­ence in your photos.

And, if you know of some­one else who would love to learn more about pho­tog­ra­phy, spread the word! Share with us on Face­book!

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